This invention relates to a cable duct for use in motor vehicles for holding cable harnesses consisting of a bundle of cable lines. The cable duct comprises, in a known manner, a baseplate having two walls forming a channel for the harness and a plurality of spaced covering brackets that are integrally hinged to the upper edge of one wall such that they can pivot down to cover the duct and hold the harness in the channel and whose free ends are provided with locking means which, when the brackets are closed, engage with corresponding locking means on an opposite wall of the channel.
This cable duct is typically inserted into depressions provided for this purpose in the bodywork or floor panels of an automobile and is attached there in a known manner. The bundle of the cable lines laid in the duct has different sizes over the length of the cable duct depending on how many of the cable lines already been led away to various locations.
The cable duct has a flattened or elongated cross section and is designed with enough spare space for the maximum number of cable lines to be held. Consequently, the inserted cable lines lie more or less loosely in the duct and can cause rattling noises when driving, because of the vibrations which occur.
A cable duct of this type is already known from German Patent No. 39 35 628 A1. Here cable ties are provided to avoid such rattling noises, which cable ties can be pulled around the lines and connected to the channel-shaped base of the duct in the region of a wall thereof. Although the cable lines can be formed into a tight harness by the ties, a plurality of cable ties must first be inserted into free spaces provided along the length of the cable duct for this purpose, and then the ties must be threaded into appropriate looks, all of which is time consuming.